Lecture: From the Spanish Inquisition to the Present: A Search for Jewish Roots – February 21, 2016

Speaker: Genie Milgrom

Genie Milgrom was born in Havana, Cuba, into a Roman Catholic family of Spanish Ancestry. She was always interested in her family genealogy, but when she learned of the possibility of having Converso Jewish roots, her search for the truth about her family’s past took on a deeper significance. In an unparalleled work of genealogy, she was able to fully document her unbroken maternal lineage going back as far as 1480 to Pre-Inquisition Spain and Portugal. She has travelled extensively into Fermoselle, the village of her ancestors in the Zamora region of Spain, while doing field research on the past Jews of Fermoselle.

Genie is currently the President of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Miami, President of Tarbut Sefarad-Fermoselle in Spain, and President of the Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies at Colorado State University in Colorado Springs. She is the author of the book,My 15 Grandmothers, as well as How I Found My 15 Grandmothers, A Step By Step Guide. The books have won the 2015 Latin Author Book awards. She also writes for several online sites including esefarad.com as well as the Journal of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian Crypto-Jewry. Her work has been showcased in the Jerusalem Post, The Miami Herald and publications around the world. She was awarded the State of Florida Genealogy Award for her outstanding achievements and advances in the pioneer work she has done in genealogy.Location : Center for Jewish History